Ambulance review: Michael Bay defibrillates old-school action movies

“People still rob banks?” someone asks about halfway through Michael Bay’s heist-gone-wrong/car-chase thriller Ambulance. She might as well have asked, “People still make movies about people robbing banks?” Or, more to the point, “People still make movies Like this about people robbing banks?” It’s a rare self-aware moment in an otherwise very un-self-conscious throwback: an action movie that could be straight out of the mid-’90s, but that most definitely is not being clever about it.

AmbulanceThis is an action movie that belongs to a certain breed, but has been pushed out of cinemas by the digital blockbuster. It’s a one-shot idea that sets off a practical spectacle of car crashes, gun battles, stunts, and sweaty acting, orchestrated by a deranged ringmaster of a director who will stop at nothing to get the shot he has in mind. It’s stupid, exciting, unruly (with a 136-minute run time), and strangely refreshing.

The really strange thing is that this shock to the system for old-school action filmmaking comes from Bay, who has been a bête noir for film critics and cinephiles for the best part of two decades. Bay is known for his fervent cutting skills and dramatic camerawork, which made action movies difficult to understand. These five films, which are increasingly dire Transformers remakes, represent the end of Hollywood’s intellectual property strip. This is the director who, until now, had only managed a single “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes, for his 1996 prison caper The Rock. The funny type of saver.

Jake Gyllenhaal and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II sit in the cab of an ambulance

Ambulance doesn’t register as an actual departure for Bay, although it is modest by his standards, with a $40 million budget and a down-to-earth setting on the streets of Los Angeles. Based on the Danish 2005 film Ambulance, AmbulanceFollows adoptive siblings Danny and Will Sharp (Jake Gyllenhaal, Yahya Abdul–Mateen II). Danny follows the path of his notorious father and is a bank-robber. Will however is a combat vet who has left crime behind. Will’s wife Amy (Moses Ingram) needs expensive surgery, which insurance won’t pay for; in desperation, Will appeals to Danny, who draws him into a big score: an armed raid on a federal bank. The heist goes wrong, rookie cop Zach (Jackson White) gets shot, and as Will and Danny look for an escape route, they hijack the ambulance carrying the injured cop and the paramedic treating him, Cam Thompson (Eiza González). The hostages give the brothers a level of protection from the pursuing forces of the LAPD, but also complicate things for them — especially for Will and his conscience — as an escalating chase roars across the city.

It’s an effective premise which sets up both the outward action of the chase and the pressure-cooker drama inside the ambulance. Bay is also completely unafraid to exploit and echo two iconic L.A. thrillers of the ’90s, Heat Speed. Both films’ imagery is heavily used by him: HeatA fierce and loud fight broke out between cops, robbers and others outside of the bank. SpeedIn all of the aerial and zoom shots, a municipality vehicle is being chased along the freeway by a battalion police cruisers or choppers. Bay has also filmed slow-motion footage showing an ambulance pushing through the standing water on the concrete floor of the Los Angeles River. Terminator 2-style? He does.

An ambulance is chased by two helicopters down the L.A. River

Ambulance’s greatest strength is how quickly it builds tension. To get to the action quickly, the plot and characters are setup with speed. The pressure and pace increase steadily. The film’s structure has an inherent momentum that Bay supercharges with his relentless filmmaking energy. It is truly a breath-taking film in the middle third, when the initial stage of the chase culminates and tensions within the ambulance reach an explosive climax. But it’s simply not possible to sustain that level of excitement over such a long running time, and the air goes out of the movie toward the end, especially after some overdeveloped plot mechanics require the ambulance to stop and start again more than once. Bay and screenwriter Chris Fedak didn’t learn Speed’s lesson: never, ever stop rolling.

It’s a minor mystery what actors as talented as Gyllenhaal and Abdul-Mateen are doing in this film. Not because it’s beneath them, but because Bay, a director with an overbearing style and an itchy trigger finger in the edit suite, rarely sees actors as anything more than moving elements in the frame, and he’s unlikely to give them much room to do their work. Abdul-Mateen, an actor of tremendous physical and emotional gravitas, looks slightly, stoically lost, like he’s struggling to keep up with the film’s gonzo energy — although he does have good sympathetic chemistry with González. Gyllenhaal, who has few inhibitions and an instinct for pulpy intensity, finds the film’s level with ease, however. To his credit, Danny remains an unpredictable and morally ambiguous character, as well as an entertainingly unhinged one, for longer than the film’s simple schema should allow.

Jake Gyllenhaal and Eiza González burst out of the back door of an ambulance

The main character is however AmbulanceMichael Bay is actually the one who attacks each moment with his intense, maximalist style, even though he’s writing a relatively grounded piece. That style — often known as “Bayhem,” and analyzed in an excellent Each Frame is a Painting video essay — is much derided for its incessant camera movement; its disorienting, rapid cuts; and its lack of nuance. It should not be mistaken for incompetence or incoherence, however: It’s a deliberate stylistic choice, implemented with tremendous technical skill.

There’s no denying that Ambulance is a dizzying assembly of footage that’s twice as impressive for being (mostly) in-camera, practical effects and stunts. The shotmaking can be breathtakingly audacious, and it comes in a delirious barrage, driven by Lorne Balfe’s pounding score. Drone cameras can be seen gliding underneath cars and pillars, as they glide down buildings’ sides. Bay takes shots other filmmakers wouldn’t hesitate to take, but he only allows for a few seconds before adding five more. It is sinful to be excessive, and the story is muddled. The effect can even overwhelm a theatre. This made me giggle, partly in mockery and partially in joy.

Bay will take on anything. This is why AmbulanceIt eventually falls prey to its own excesses. This is why the thriller, which should be efficient and lean, has an incredibly large and complicated cast of supporting characters. Garret Dallahunt stands out, being a macho captain in the LAPD crack team. That is why there’s a ludicrous subplot involving a gangster cartel and a radio-controlled minigun, and a scene of improvised surgery using a mobile phone, a hair clip, and a face-punch for anesthesia. But it’s also what makes it a thrill, and a kind of luxury, to watch Bay take Bayhem out of the CGI workstation and back out onto the streets. Bayhem’s technical prowess can be evident, and his proud sense of tastelessness becomes a sort of retro cool.

AmbulanceIt is now in theatres